What You’re Really Selling
Trust is part of the product, not a reward for good marketing. If the product underdelivers or customer service disappears, you’re not just breaking a promise, you’re breaking the product itself. The experience becomes defective, no matter how perfect the pitch was.
We like to think of email as the final layer of polish, the proof that our systems are working and our strategy is sound. You can scrub your list, run deliverability checks, master cadence, and segmentation. You can build the cleanest automations and most thoughtful nurture flows. But if what lives on the other end — the product, the service, the exchange — doesn’t hold up, your email becomes a spotlight. Good comms doesn’t fix reputation. There’s a point in every communications strategy where you have to admit it’s not the message. It’s the substance.
According to Salesforce’s 2024 State of the Connected Customer report, 88% of customers say the experience a company provides is as important as its products or services. That means your customer service team is as much a part of your sales department as your marketing one.
Retention Is Proof, Not Persuasion
You don’t keep customers by reminding them what you sell. Customers want to feel good about what they buy because what they buy is what they buy into. Part of that is reminding them they matter.
Every quick refund, every kind response, every small sign that someone’s paying attention becomes a reason to stay loyal. And when people trust you, they don’t just buy again — they stop price-shopping altogether.
That’s what every campaign is ultimately trying to achieve: a relationship strong enough that the next sale feels inevitable.
Deliverability Starts with Delivery
Email metrics tell you how far a message travels, not how well it lands. The real deliverability test is whether your product and service show up the way your subject lines say they will.
You can’t automate sincerity.
You can’t segment your way into integrity.
You can’t A/B-test your way out of broken trust.
Marketing can get someone to the door. Service is what invites them back in. You are not just selling the thing, you’re selling the confidence that you will stand behind it.
No automation stack can make up for a missing refund, a rude reply, or a product that fails. You can’t journey-map your way out of indifference. The only retention strategy that works is being worth coming back to.
The truth of deliverability is that credibility starts long before the inbox.
Quick Pre-Holiday Audit (15–20 minutes)
1) Reality check (5 min)
Pull three recent support emails or DMs.
Note first response time, resolution time, and tone.
Ask: Would I feel cared for by this reply? If not, flag it.
2) Promise vs. proof (5 min)
List the top three promises in your last email or landing page.
Write the concrete proof a customer experiences within 72 hours.
Confirmation with next steps, status updates, human contact route.If proof is missing, add it to your templates now.
3) The refund reflex (3 min)
Choose one refund or replacement from the last 30 days.
Map the timeline from request to resolution.
If it took more than 48 hours, define the one change to make it same day.
4) One small fix (2–5 min)
Implement a tiny, durable improvement today:
clearer auto-reply with a real window and a name, a same-day make-good rule, or a four-line service script (greet, name the issue, next step with timeline, invite reply).
Adjustments To Lock In
Set a response SLA: under 4 business hours to first human reply.
Schedule one proactive update for any delayed order or request.
Add a “quiet week” to reduce nonessential sends during peak days.
Empower frontline staff with a simple make-good budget and authority.
Crisis Modes For Holiday Rush
Mode A: Volume spike
Triage queue by impact: money at risk, delivery issues, access problems.
Post a banner with current response window and alternatives to reach you.
Send a proactive “we see you” update to open tickets every 24 hours.
Mode B: System outage or vendor delay
One message to all affected with what happened, what you are doing, and when the next update arrives.
Offer a clear make-good. Keep updates on a fixed cadence.
Mode C: Reputation flare-up
Single accountable voice.
Acknowledge, state the fix, set the next update time, and follow through.
Commitment line:
This week we will improve __________ so customers feel __________ within __________ hours.
